Zuckerberg named top U.S. philanthropist in 2013

PanARMENIAN.Net - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have been named joint top U.S. philanthropists for 2013, BBC News reports.

The couple gained the accolade after a donation of 18 million Facebook shares to a Silicon Valley foundation. The donation, worth more than $970mln, was the largest in the U.S. in 2013.

The gift outstripped philanthropists such as Bill and Melinda Gates, the Chronicle of Philanthropy said.

Zuckerberg and his wife made the $970mln donation to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a charity that manages and distributes charitable funds.

The shares have helped to make the foundation one of the largest in the US, the Chronicle of Philanthropy said.

Over the past two years, Zuckerberg and Chan have donated about 36 million Facebook shares to the foundation. Funds have broadly been distributed to education and health, with $5m being distributed to a health clinic in East Palo Alto, for example.

Philanthropists who have previously headed the list, such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have been making good on previous years' pledges. They gave their foundation slightly more than $181.3m last year, and continue to honor a pledge of about $3.3bn they made in 2004.